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Vusumuzi Dube, Municipal Reporter
BULAWAYO’S much anticipated reconstruction projects — the rehabilitation of Basch Bus Terminus commonly known as Egodini will go ahead although with stringent conditions to make sure the contractor starts work.
Councillors have vowed to continue with their tender cancellation procedures if the contractor, Terracotta Private Limited, fails to start the rehabilitation by the end of February after a handover of the site by Bulawayo City Council that is scheduled for 31 January 2018.
The project which has experienced a number of false starts since Terracotta won the tender in September 2012, is expected to gobble close to $60 million, with the company having been awarded a 99-year lease to the terminus.
In the latest developments councillors have decided not to go ahead with a tender cancellation motion that was submitted by Councillor Nephat Sibanda of Ward 16.
Instead they have now ordered council officials to officially hand over the site by 31 January and further the company has to start work at Egodini within 30 days of being handed over the site.
“Actually I understand that the contractor is saying that they can move onto the site a day after being handed over the site so let’s wait and see. Council now has to hand over the site by 31 January then we wait and see what the contractor will do, after that we can then talk of the process to cancel the tender.
“Councillors were correct in that when this tender was initially awarded there were no timelines which were factored in this, meaning we could not hold the company at ransom when they had not moved on site. Now that we have set the timelines, Terracotta has to be informed and everything set in motion,” said the city’s Mayor, Councillor Martin Moyo during a full council meeting.
Council sources have further revealed that the ultimatum was simply meant to fix the legality challenges the local authority was likely to face if they had rushed to just cancel the tender. They revealed that now that there was a clear timeline, which was going to be communicated to Terracotta it was going to be much easier to cancel the tender when they failed to move on site.
“Our investigations have revealed that Terracotta lost their main sponsor some time ago and were taking advantage of the loophole that there was no set time frame to court a new sponsor. We know that their runner called Nkosi has been busy taking various individuals and companies around the site with the hope of courting them.
“For now we have decided on a wait and see strategy. Come end of February when they fail to move on site, we can then start legally cancelling the tender. What is worrying us is that we are not operating in a vacuum, people are watching us and they are all realising that we have clearly failed to get this project off the ground since 2012, which by all means is worrying,” said the source.
With the setting of the ultimatum, it now means Bulawayo City Council should have moved commuter omnibuses, vendors and businesses that operate at Egodini by mid-January to allow for the site to be handed over to the contractor.
The local authority is yet to identify sites to move these to their temporary sites they would operate from while the rehabilitation is taking place.
The initial tender for the re-development of the terminus was advertised and closed on 25 June 2012, the compulsory tender briefing was held on 5 July with 14 companies attending. The pre-adjudication inter-departmental meeting was held on 11 September to consider the submissions, where Terracotta was awarded the tender.
The company was also awarded a 99-year lease to the terminus.
Past projects that have been done by the company include Edendale Shopping Mall in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, Chris Hani Crossing Taxi facility in Gauteng and the Tsakane Mall Taxi Rank also in Gauteng.
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